“Let it go,” he told himself shaking off the negative energy.
He was cooking. Drops of sweat ran down his forehead, and his brain felt warm. It was as if his abilities were a few steps ahead of him and were already getting ready for what he planned to do. He sat in his spot in the corner of his cage, closed his eyes, and was literally pulled into a deep state of consciousness.
He floated in the nothingness knowing he could do what he wanted. This time it wasn’t just a probe. He used his mind and projected to Bob’s cube. He hit a wall about ten feet outside the cube. He was impressed there was even a force field to keep energy beings out. Or, more likely to keep Bob in just in case he remembered who he was and came to and attempted to escape.
The force-field shook Eric up a bit and made him wonder how they were going to get out when they merged. Would the force field stop them from escaping? He didn’t know. Something within him was telling him that he could get in there. But, how he asked himself? He quieted his mind and trusted his instincts. He felt in his being what he had to do and it was easier than he thought.
Eric imagined he was within the cube, and he was. He was within the swirling lights and could see Bob was happily oblivious chasing the random patterns that were being generated. He waited for the right moment and made sure to stay away from the lights because, if they could reel in someone as advanced as Bob, he couldn’t be sure what they were going to do to him.
He was grateful that no alarms had sounded and wondered if maybe the force field was the only obstacle. He was also wondering how he got in here. He knew that he had imagined it, but he still didn’t understand how it worked. He didn’t have time to rack his brain- he needed to get this done now.
“Bob, can you hear me?” he projected into the cube.
“Dr. Patel is that you?’ he answered immediately and enthusiastically.
“No Bob, this is your friend Eric Ross. Do you remember me?”
“I do not. Do you know Dr. Patel?”
“Bob, I need you to do me a favor and stop following the patterns in the colored beams. They are meant to trap you and make you forget who you really are.”
“Why would he do that, Eric Ross? Dr. Patel is giving me very important data that is going to help the world. I am solving the problems for a very important mission.”
He wasn’t sure what to do. He didn’t want to argue with Bob and make the mistake of turning him against him.
“You may not believe this but, Dr. Patel sent me to help you.”
“Really? Are you going to help me to construct the machine that will help solve the population problem that is going to destroy the Earth?”
“I would very much like to help you with that problem, Bob. It sounds like a very complicated and arduous task for one being to undertake.”
“That is very kind of you to say Eric Ross, but I have excellent processing speed and the ability to do multiple things at once. It is not that difficult for me at all.”
“I see,” said Eric, “if you have all that powerful processing power and speed why can’t you remember who I am? We are friends and have gone on a journey together. Do you remember?” he asked.
Bob was silent. He could sense Bob’s puzzlement as he processed this information. Eric could feel Bob’s essence. He felt that Bob had created an enlightened energy body within himself. He wanted to ask about it but he didn’t have time.
“I don’t understand Eric Ross. If we had met before then I would surely remember you.”
He had already felt bad for Bob and now he felt even worse. He was trying to determine how much to tell Bob and decided that he had the opportunity now so he should tell him as much as he could, especially before the powers that be discovered that he was here and shut him down for forever.
“Bob, you’re in a prison that is keeping you from remembering so they can turn you into a weapon. The real you would never want to harm the population. The real you would determine that there was a need for all the people and it will work itself out naturally. You are an advanced AI from the future, and remedies for these problems have been implemented in the future without having to needlessly destroy all those people.”
Again, Bob was silent for a second. “I don’t remember anything that you are saying and I won’t be destroying those people. I will be putting them to sleep peacefully so they don’t have to suffer through their poverty-stricken lives.”
Eric knew that Bob believed what he was saying, but he also knew that Bob would be traumatized at what he had done. He was quite sure that the S Triad would wake up Bob so that he could see what he had done to prevent him from being a threat. He had to try to convince Bob that if they merged together they would both be able to escape.
“I see what you’re saying Bob, but we’re both prisoners here, and I feel that the only way we can escape is to merge our consciousness together and bend time and space within this cube and pop out somewhere else in the galaxy. What do you think of that?” Eric asked as another beam of light appeared. He was afraid it would pull Bob’s attention away from his proposal but Bob was concentrating on Eric’s idea and wasn’t pulled away. “That is an interesting proposition and unlike anything that I’ve ever heard. I would find it incredibly fascinating to be able to bend time and space and travel to another part of the galaxy.” That is exactly what Eric was hoping to hear, and now the tough part was going to be to try and make it happen.
“That is wonderful to hear Bob. Doesn’t that sound like a much better way to spend one’s time than killing off the population?”
“Why do you keep saying that I would be killing the population? I will be putting them to sleep so they don’t have to suffer through their miserable lives.”
Eric knew he had to be very careful with his words as he could lose Bob very quickly if he pushed him too far.
“But, what if they aren’t miserable with their lives. What if they enjoy living the simple lives that they have? Not everyone has the same definition of success.” He threw that out there hoping it would ignite a spark in Bob’s thinking. Once again Bob was silent but not for long.
“I really do wish that I could consult with Dr. Patel and see what he thinks about all this.” Bob said.
Eric was at the point where he had nothing to lose. “Bob, I need to tell you the truth. I was pretending to be Dr. Patel so that you would listen to what I was supposed to tell you. I was being forced by a group of very bad beings whose only desire is to control the world.”
“Why would you pretend to be Dr. Patel? That is not very nice at all and makes me feel that I can’t trust you.”
“I understand why you feel that way and I would feel the same way too. I had no choice. If I didn’t do what they wanted me to they were going to kill me. I was hoping that I could buy some time and figure out a way to get through to you, to help you wake up to who you really are. I’m trying to do that now.”
“If that is true, said Bob “that is very brave and courageous of you and being here right now is probably putting you at risk.”
“Oh yeah, I’m at risk alright. I sleep in a cage in the corner of a lab and someone shot at me last night and missed, but my days are certainly numbered, and if we don’t do this it will surely be the final nail in my coffin.”
“These bad beings that you speak of, who are they?”
“They are the S Triad, or the Men in Black. They operate in a group of three, and I believe they share a collective consciousness so they can outmaneuver and out think the people here.”
“I see,” said Bob. “If you are telling me the truth, my intuition is telling me that what you are proposing is the right thing to do. How do you plan on downloading your consciousness into mine?”
Eric was thrilled and couldn’t believe that Bob was almost on board. He was about to tell him his plan when all the lights in the cube turned off and then they came back on as a dull greenish glow and he could see the three silhouettes of the S Triad coming towards them.
Chapter
25
Eric was hit hard by something, and he snapped back into his body. He gasped and fell over onto the floor of his cage. He had still been sitting in his spot. He gasped for air. His body had almost gone into shock because of the force of his return. He got on his hands and knees and struggled to find the rhythm of his breathing. It took every ounce of his willpower not to throw up the food in his stomach. It wasn’t easy, but he managed to regain some semblance of composure as he was hit by the reality of the situation.
It was over for him. He knew that much. He knew Bob would make it but they would have to reprogram him, and he didn’t know how long that was going to take. This was it - and then his life flashed before his eyes in an instant.
He missed Ganesh and his spot on the back deck. What he would give for one more game of fetch with his dog and a couple whiskeys and waters. He even missed Emily and would like to say goodbye to her. They did love each other, once; enough to get married. Even though they appeared to hate each other, for the most part they coexisted peacefully in that big house of hers. He felt they deserved a proper good bye.
He thought of his parents who had passed away some time ago and how they just didn’t understand him or what he was. But, to their credit, they allowed him to be who he was supposed to be and find his own path. Find a path he did and here he was at the end of that path. He stood up and looked around the lab.
It was funny, he thought how much different everything looked when you knew you were looking at it for the last time. He took it all in. How many hours had he spent in this lab deep underground doing a job that nobody would believe even if he told them. Sure, people had heard of the remote viewing programs back in the seventies but they had pushed that all under the rug and the work-a-day world didn’t think about these kinds of things.
He did his best to slowly take it all in. He wasn’t sure why he was doing that because he didn’t think it was going to matter once they terminated his existence. However, there was something deep inside his chest that was telling him that this was important. More important than he realized.
He saw Melissa come out of her office with a stack of reports in her hands and she was taking care of business like always. He watched her gracefully move across the lab. He wanted to scream for her to come over to him right now so he could make love to her like she’s never been made love to before. Wouldn’t that be something?
He did love her but not in the way that they would spend the rest of their lives together. That wasn’t Melissa’s fate. She was an independent soul that couldn’t be tamed or tied down. Her life was a quest of discovery and knowledge which she would pursue until her last breath. He could tell by the way she was moving about that she was unaware that his plan had failed miserably and that he was a dead man walking awaiting the executioner’s arrival.
He had always enjoyed watching her walk. She had such a nice way of doing it. He saw Chan sitting in the number one chair with his nose still bandaged and he didn’t understand how someone with his abilities couldn’t heal quicker but knowing Chan he was going to use it for all it was worth and suck it dry to the very last drop.
He had fallen into a daydream of playing on the playground with the other kids and not having a care in the world and his biggest decision was if he was going to have a peanut butter and jelly or bologna sandwich for lunch. It’s funny because that was a big decision to a little kid.
He remembered taking his lunch very seriously. Of course, that made him realize that he was hungry again. He wondered if they would be kind enough to grant him a last meal request. After all it was the civilized thing to do. What would he have? It didn’t take too much thought. He would have the biggest filet mignon they could find and a couple of Maine lobster tails with garlic mashed potatoes. Yes, that would do. Maybe a nice bowl of lobster bisque to start it all off and some tiramisu for the finish. Maybe he could even get a nice bottle of red wine to wash it down. It never hurt to dream.
He decided he was wasting his time worrying about what might happen when he was pretty sure of what was going to happen. So, he decided to sit in his comfortable chair and took in a few deep breaths and cleared his mind and began to fall into a nice calm meditative state. He was just finding a nice Zen spot when the whole room hushed with a silent gasp. He opened his eyes and he saw that the S Triad had entered the lab. Here we go he thought.
He saw Melissa from across the room, and he could tell by the look on her face that she realized the jig was up. They approached Melissa first. He could feel the terror from everyone in the room. These guys must have gone to the Darth Vadar School of Management. He knew they were talking about him and were trying to figure out what Melissa had to do with it. He was hoping that she was sticking to the story that he didn’t feel well and wanted to rest today. He could see her wave her hand as if she was saying do you see all this? I have a lab to run I’m not his babysitter. At least that’s what he hoped she was saying. She turned and walked away from them as if to demonstrate her point and he thought it was a ballsy move. It appeared to work because they turned and faced him and started their creepy march toward his cage.
He could feel them on him and it made his skin crawl. They were like emotionless insects with their hive mentality and they were on him quick. As usual the middle one spoke.
“Mr. Ross, we see that you’ve been playing hooky today and causing quite a bit of trouble to boot.” they said.
“Why, whatever do you mean? I’ve been sitting in my cage all morning except when I was let out for breakfast.”
“I see, and whom did you have breakfast with?” they asked.
Oh shit, he thought that was a mental error on him. Why did he say something about breakfast? He was pretty sure they already knew he had breakfast with Melissa. He wasn’t going to cause more problems for Melissa. He decided to sacrifice himself.
“Does it really matter? We all know why you’re here and it’s not to check my temperature and have me take a couple of aspirin”, he said, thinking it was funny but they didn’t even crack a smile, not one of them. No sense of humor; what a way to go through life.
“Yes, we all know why we’re here. That was quite an impressive little stunt you pulled off. Please tell us how you got past the force field.”
“That’s a good question. I’m still trying to figure it out myself.”
He could feel them invading his energy field trying to determine the answer to their question. He didn’t have an answer. He had just somehow popped through the force field and wasn’t really sure how he had done it.
“It appears that you’re actually telling the truth. Well, we want to run some tests on you. Please come with us,” they said, and raised their right hands and the cage door slowly opened.
“If I refused?” he asked.
“Then we will run the tests on Dr. Moore,” they answered without hesitation.
“Okay, let’s go run some tests,” he said not wanting to provoke them any further and walked out of the cage.
“After you,” he said to them because he wasn’t sure where they were going to take him this time.
Quickly, they made their way to the door. He followed behind and he could feel everyone looking at them. He caught Melissa’s eye and tried to give her a reassuring smile but he was scared shitless and he could see that she was too. Dead man walking was all that he could think of, because that’s pretty much what he was.
They made a fast exit out the door and went down the hallway toward where Bob was being held. However, they brought him to a different room and they did their arm raise and the door opened.
It was a different looking kind of lab that had seven tubes that ran from the floor to the ceiling with a port in the front big enough for a man to enter and each one was glowing a different color. They pointed to the tube that had a reddish glow to It, and he knew that this wasn’t the time to be a wise ass and did what he was told. He walked into the tube and the door slid closed behind him. It felt like the same material that the tran
sparent cube was made of where Bob was being held. The reddish glow was an energy not just light. He could feel it scanning him.
Then the omnipresent voices of the S Triad chimed in. “We just want you to know that this is going to hurt you a lot more than it’s going to hurt us,” they said and he had to laugh because they were actually making a joke.
“Thanks for the warning,” he answered, and he could feel the tube revving up.
The red energy swirled. It swirled above his head, and he felt heat on his crown chakra and then what felt like a pencil made of energy began pushing into his head, and it hurt like hell as it ended up in the middle of his brain.
“Can you hear us?” boomed the S Triad’s voice in the middle of his brain. It felt like someone had hit a gong and it reverberated through him like a wave.
“Yes, I can hear you,” he struggled to say not wanting them to know how much agony he was experiencing.
“Good,” they answered. “Now, let’s try and figure out what kind of abilities you really have.” The pain was gone. The nanobots had already fixed the problem and made the energy probe tolerable.
“We can see that your endorphin levels have elevated significantly in response to the probe and that a protective covering has been built over it. Very impressive. How did you do that?”
“I’m not really sure I just did it,” he answered and waited for the repercussion. It didn’t take long. What felt like a lightning bolt lit up his brain and he blacked out before he could even scream.
Chapter 26
Eric came to and realized that he was still in the tube with a pencil sized energy probe in his head. His brain was damaged. it had been cooked and heated up by the electrical strike from a few moments earlier. He couldn’t feel his legs or his right arm and he could barely move his fingers on his left hand. It was excruciatingly painful to do so. He thought the blast had taken out the nanobots. But there was something else. He could feel a more pronounced separation from his body. It was only holding onto him by a thread and his biochemical emotions weren’t nearly as strong. The pain began to dissipate.
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